1 Used

Amoeba Review

10/21/2013

Ok, so, when I was 18 I worked at a very high end clothing store in Hollywood and I sold shoes there. One day Davey Havok came in and, at that point, just getting into Wire and Pere Ubu and Can, I didn't even want to admit that I knew who he was. He knew I knew, though, (18 year olds are awful starers) and picked up a pair of very expensive white sneakers with bats printed all over them and looked at me and said "I love these, but too obvious for me, no?" Before I could answer, he laughed and moved on. In any case, he says this new record (AFI's 9th and first in four years) is "a record of silence" but also "very layered and very rich." To this reviewer, it sounds like exquisitely tortured stadium-ready goth-rock and upbeat Cure-punk for miserable teenagers and the miserable teenagers in all of us. Davey looks and sounds really great these days and the band is in fine form, flexing their own musicianship in a way they haven't for a while. Dark kudos!